An Excel Ctrl & End problem solved

I use shortcut keys a lot to navigate files. In Excel, two of my favourites are Ctrl & the Home key (which takes me to the first active cell in my spreadsheet), and Ctrl & End (which takes me to the end). Once I start getting quite a bit of data, those two shortcuts are amazingly helpful.

But. Every now and again I have a problem with where there must be some stray formatting in a cell which means that Ctrl & End takes me to somewhere far, far away in the spreadsheet. Earlier this year, in a 230 data row dataset with live columns to AC, Ctrl & End landed me in row WWH in a spreadsheet at row 270. WWH was definitely a few columns too distant for me.

So I highlit (ha, ha; like that new word?) the columns and used the clear tool on the Home Ribbon. Then Ctrl & Ended (another one!) again... but no. Still at WWH. I re-highlighted the problem columns and stepped through clearing formatting, contents etc one by one in the clear section, then tried again. Ctrl & End still took me out to column WWH.

Time for an alternative. A bit of digging provided a great solution - and using short cuts, as follows (Kader, 2024):

• Select the last active column in your spreadsheet
• Key Ctrl, Shift & the Right Arrow to highlight all the 'live' columns
• Key Ctrl & - (minus, and I used the number pad for this key) to delete cell contents
• Key Ctrl & S to save

Close out. Reopen and try Ctrl & End again. 

And lo! I was at AC230 :-)

Sam

References:

Kader, E. (2024, February 12). [Solved!] CTRL+END Shortcut Key Goes Too Far in Excel (6 Fixes). Exceldemy. https://www.exceldemy.com/excel-ctrl-end-goes-too-far/